{"id":9172,"date":"2020-06-09T22:05:10","date_gmt":"2020-06-09T22:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/?p=9172"},"modified":"2020-06-09T22:11:38","modified_gmt":"2020-06-09T22:11:38","slug":"wapuri-mask-from-bolivia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wapuri-mask-from-bolivia\/","title":{"rendered":"Wapuri mask from Bolivia"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Q: I was gifted this mask by an eldrly friend a while ago and it has been in the attic ever since. She brought this mask, along with a a few others of similar nature, from Morocco in the 1960s\/1970s to the UK. The only thing I could potentially pin this mask to is the Boujloud Festival in Morocco, but cannot find anything else to identify them. They are made form plaster\/clay & are big enough to put over an adult head (14in x 8in). It also appears that thread was used to attach components such as eyes and hair. I also have another mask of the same style but the paint is glossy rather than matt. It is of better condition than one pictured. Casper, 1712<\/p>\n

A: It was obvious that your interesting mask came from Bolivia, so I sent the pictures to Aaron Fellmeth at Second Face. He was kind enough to share the following… <\/p>\n

That\u2019s a relatively rare mask known as Wapuri (also spelled Waphuri). It is used in the Kullawada dance, usually worn with a tall hat made of beads, rhinestones, fake pearls, etc. The Kullawada supposedly originated among the Aymara people living around Lake Titicaca and made its way to La Paz, and represents a dance of textile makers, who carry little spindles as they dance. Both men and women dance, directed by the Wapuri. The Wapuri carries a staff and screams \u201cWapuri\u201d whenever he wishes the dancers to change their choreography. The reason the mask is rare is that, unlike diablos and jukumari, where a dance team wears dozens of masks, there is only one Wapuri per team. For your Spanish-speaking audience, here\u2019s a link to a really nice video about it: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ypEieHF4tos If that specific mask is for sale, I\u2019d be willing to buy it for the Museum. A\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Q: I was gifted this mask by an eldrly friend a while ago and it has been in the attic ever since. She brought this mask, along with a a few others of similar nature, from Morocco in the 1960s\/1970s to the UK. The only thing I could potentially pin this mask to is the Boujloud Festival in Morocco, but cannot find anything else to identify them. They are made form plaster\/clay & are big enough to put over an adult head (14in x 8in). It also appears that thread was used to attach components such as eyes and hair. I also have another mask of the same style but the paint is glossy rather than matt. It is of better condition than one pictured. Casper, 1712 A: It was obvious that your interesting mask came from Bolivia, so I sent the pictures to Aaron Fellmeth at Second Face. He was kind enough to share the following… That\u2019s a relatively rare mask known as Wapuri (also spelled Waphuri). It is used in the Kullawada dance, usually worn with a tall hat made of beads, rhinestones, fake pearls, etc. The Kullawada supposedly originated among the Aymara people living around Lake Titicaca and made its way to La Paz, and represents a dance of textile makers, who carry little spindles as they dance. Both men and women dance, directed by the Wapuri. The Wapuri carries a staff and screams \u201cWapuri\u201d whenever he wishes the dancers to change their choreography. The reason the mask is rare is that, unlike diablos and jukumari, where a dance team wears dozens of masks, there is only one Wapuri per team. For your Spanish-speaking audience, here\u2019s a link to a really nice video about it: https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ypEieHF4tos If that specific mask is for sale, I\u2019d be willing to buy it for the Museum. A<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9173,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-south-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9172"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9178,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9172\/revisions\/9178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/masksoftheworld.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}